8 year old sleepover party

DD1 is having a sleepover party for her 8th birthday. I will have 5 little seven and eight year olds in my house from 3pm on a Saturday, and they're getting picked up at 11am on the Sunday.

It's just dawned on me that they'll all be here for a pretty long time!!

Saturday afternoon - what fun activities can I plan? Something not too babyish, something fun, but cheap or free. I don't want to take them anywhere, just want some ideas of fun things for girls to do at home. Any craft ideas? Games?

At some point we'll go out and pick a couple of DVDs which they can watch after dinner. Dinner will be either fish and chips, spaghetti bolognaise, or a mixture of finger foods such as sausage rolls, sandwiches etc. Plus of course, the birthday cake.

All the kids will sleep together in the lounge room.

My Sunday morning plans are to do a pancake breakfast with hot chocolates. I imagine they'll just play in the morning and by the time breakfast is over, and they're dressed and packed, their parents will be here to get them.

Should I be doing anything else? Have you got any ideas or lovely touches?

The chocolate game is one of my favourite party games. You have a table and chair, knife and fork and a block of chocolate. Everyone sits in a circle around the table and roll a die. The first to get a 6 gets to try and cut off some chocolate before the next 6 comes up. And to make it more fun, you have to put an apron, hat and gloves (or other dress ups!!) before you start cutting. Any chocolate you cut you can eat, but if you don't get it cut before the next 6 is rolled that's it!!

I'd do party games in the afternoon that will tire them out (obstacle course, musical chairs, statues etc) so they're nice and tired and sleep, and have another movie for the morning too. Enjoy, I started going to sleepovers at 7 and they were so much fun!!

Yep, I'd do 5pm til 9am. Those little darlings will natter until at least 12 and be awake at the crack of dawn!! Shoo them off as early as possible and then YOU can go back to bed

Pedicure,ManicuresSilly HairdosTreasure hunt in the gardenScavenger huntGet out WII zumba or some zumba Dvds to fool around in front offSing star - Abba is good cause they will be amazed that you know all the words!Make piklets - put the batter in a sqeezy sauce bottle and they can make their initials etc.

The timing and the numbers sound very manageable to me. How about dress up clothes and a supply of cheap make-up for them to paint themselves with. While I don't agree with formal make-up parties for little kids it is an entirely different thing if you just let them go crazy themselves. Try the local op-shop (if you want to be really cruel.....) for some dress up type clothes -

I recently had 9 girls aged 6-9 years sleep over they came at 3pm and left at 10am. It was perfect. Craft with that many I thought was too hard so I just bought some jumbo chalk and let rhem go wild on the back pavers. They did that for literally hours. I also gave them two buckets and jumbo sponges and they had relay races to see who could transfer water from one bucket to another using the sponges. Again did that for ages.

After dinner we had glow sticks, a pack of 100,which they made bracelets and then turned off the lights and had a disco. About 9.30 I put on a movie. They were all asleep by midnight.

We had a sleep over for our daughter, it was great fun and simple - Pizza and movies is always a winner! I bought some sleep over themed decorations from Birthdays Wrapped Up. The biggest hit was a door decoration that dangled at the entrance, it made the sleep over extra girly.

I had five 8 year olds at ours about a month ago from 3 until 10. I honestly wouldn't be too worried about games unless you live in a small flat. They just ran around like idiots for hours. Nothing structured. They literally spent hours making up plays and musical numbers which they performed for DH and I.

I think the less you need to organise the more bearable it is.

ETA - they also took up a lot of time planning their midnight feast..... and then of course fell asleep and slept right through.

At DD's party we had balloon races. They put a balloon between thier legs and had to jump, waddle to other end turn around and sit on balloon until it broke. They played this game for and hour. Though its a bit messy, it was great fun.

Pinata was good too. You can make or buy one, and as you will need lollies for midnight feast this can be the place they earn them from.

I set up a table for making necklaces, bracelets and door hangers. I just use all my craft stuff. The girls love keeping them and they each made one for there mum too, which kept them interested for longer.

My DD had a sleepover party with 3 of her closest friends for her 9th birthday. It was the easiest party ever and DD and her friends had a great time. We made cupcakes, which they all helped with, and then they each decorated their own cupcakes. Dinner was 'make your own pizzas'. They watched a movie after dinner. In the morning, they made their own ribbon hair ties (similar to this)

The rest of the time, they were happy to just play in DD's room and in the garden. I had some of those stick-on nail sets handy in case another activity was needed, but we didn't end up using them. And they lost interest in the hair ties pretty quickly - they just wanted to play. One of her friends got picked up at 11am the next morning, the other 2 stayed well into the afternoon, they played and entertained themselves so it was fine.

I'd be tempted to make the time frame a little shorter. Probably 4-10.

Both my girls had a sleepover party for their 9th birthdays.

Activities ...Dd1Buy a pile of plain white pillowcases and a pack or two of fabric markers. Let them decorate their own pillowcase. huge hit with the kids, they all changed their pillowcases over once they were done. This took them a fair while, they were happy just to talk etc until dinnerDinner was takeout pizza, they sat on the floor to eat. Then birthday cake, with make your ice team sundaes for dessert. Just a couple of scoops of ice cream, and they could add they own other stuff - sprinkles, choc chips, mini m&ms, strawberries, whipped cream etc.

After food, kicked them all in the back room. Gave them each their party bags at this point, which contained lollies (snacks for the movie), glow sticks, small led torch. And they really just entertained themselves with music, and then movies.

Dd2Started a bit earlier because hers was summer, and we have a pool. So they swam, dinner was nibbly food like nuggets party pies etc.After dinner, we took them for a walk around the block to an a street that had unreal Christmas lights.Then let them entertain themselves with movies etc.

I like 10 as a pick up time, because its meant most were gone by 10:30, leaving us the day to recover.

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